Posted on 07/02/2006 1:06:47 PM PDT by Jameison
Bill Keller and Dean Baquet issue a joint pronouncement today defending their decision to publish classified details of a safe, legal, and effective counterterror program.
There’s little new here. The editors don’t try to argue that the program was illegal, that it had inadequate safeguards, that Congress was not briefed, or that the program was ineffective.
In the absence of any such argument, their decision cannot be defended, and they make no serious effort to try. Instead we get the same platitudes and arguments we have seen from each of them individually: they hate terrorism too; they took the decision seriously; the public has a right to know. I refer readers to my earlier response to Dean Baquet’s previous defense.
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But when a program is legal, effective, and has proper controls and oversight — and the editors here make no serious effort to argue otherwise — the argument doesn’t fly. And the editors make these decisions with incomplete information; witness the fact that the Los Angeles Times didn’t even know any of the specific successes of the program when they ran their story.
While the piece offers nothing new in the way of a defense, it nevertheless has a couple of interesting aspects.
First, the obvious: the editor of the Wall Street Journal did not contribute. It’s a joint piece by the editors of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Alone.
In legal circles, that’s known as an admission. If you’re looking for the responsible papers, look no further: The East and West Coast Timeses are the newspapers responsible for blowing this program.
(Excerpt) Read more at patterico.com ...
The NYT and LAT both think it's chic to be subversive. They both know the windfall profits will roll in should there be another 911. Also, they know that doing the espionage work of terrorists will give them an 'in' getting the scoop after the next 3000 innocent Americans die.
Personally, I think they should all spend the rest of their lives in Leavenworth (short lives - the penalty for espionage in wartime is summary execution), and that their buildings should be burned to the ground, and then the ground salted.
Am I over-reacting? Tough.
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